After my last post, a few junior high students I work with asked, “Great you mentioned pre-schoolers, Sue, but what about us in junior high?” And, then, a couple of my corporate clients commented, “Yes, kids can put us to shame. But, surely, business people are doing good things as well.”

Well of course!  Here are a few examples:

At one junior high school, students petitioned their school to build accessible ramps and to offer interpreters for hearing-impaired classmates. In California, high school students protested what they saw as an anti-immigrant bill. In the past, I worked with a group of high school students who have decided to hold a Senior Prom where they invited Seniors i.e. Senior citizens and held an intergenerational dance.

And, yes, in businesses where I’ve had the privilege of consulting, I’ve seen employees work hard to change hiring, promoting and distribution policies from an Us vs. Them environment to a “We’re all in this together” which is reality, not just a Public Relations slogan. And guess what? It works!

Lastly, I was inspired by this story:

In a small town in Michigan, upon hearing that a hate group was going to sponsor a festival to celebrate the superiority of the white race, students joined with adult community leaders to plan their own counter Unity Fest. The Unity Fest was so successful and the planning for the event induced so many citizens to get involved that the hate group never got their festival off the ground.

So there! American history is filled with examples of people of all ages, colors, gender, income groups and so on who took a stand against injustice and ignorance and made a difference.

This article may be reprinted when this full byline is used: Susan O’Halloran is a story artist, workshop presenter, television personality and keynote speaker whose work explores the complex issues of social justice. She is an author of four books plus diversity curriculums, CDs and films. The Chicago Reader says O’Halloran “has mastered the Irish art of telling stories that are funny and heart-wrenching at the same time.” For a copy of a free teleseminar with Susan, go to www.susanohalloran.com

Learning from Children

I’ve met children as young as four who have chosen to fight discrimination. Take an example from years ago: it was a preschool class who asked their teacher to write the Crayola Company and say, “These crayons you call ‘flesh’ aren’t the color of a lot of our skins. Why don’t you call this color something else?” Today, if you open a box of crayons, because of many children and adults asking similar questions, you won’t find a light colored crayon (or a band-aid),  labeled “flesh.”

Another group of pre-schoolers was taking a walk and saw a sign in a store window that said, “Men wanted.” They asked their teacher if they could stop and talk to the store’s owner. They told the man (who as you can imagine was surprised to be visited by 15 four-year-olds) his sign was unfair to women. The owner changed his sign to read: “Job available.”

When did we lose that ability to speak up and to believe we could make a difference?

This article may be reprinted when this full byline is used:

Susan O’Halloran is a story artist, workshop presenter, television personality and keynote speaker whose work explores the complex issues of social justice. She is an author of four books plus diversity curriculums, CDs and films. The Chicago Reader says O’Halloran “has mastered the Irish art of telling stories that are funny and heart-wrenching at the same time.” For a copy of a free teleseminar with Susan, go to www.susanohalloran.com

Geographically-Correct

Geography is a dimension of diversity we often forget about, but it really can influence our perspectives. Recently, I was teaching a diversity workshop in a small town in Indiana. I’d been to this bank building several times before and always found the signage in the town particularly confusing.

“I always get lost in this town,” I remarked to some of the participants. “But, then, I figure it’s because I’m a big city kid and expect more instruction. Maybe because it’s such a small town, they just figure everyone knows where they’re going.”

A tall woman with long brown hair began to laugh. She had driven sixty miles to the workshop from a farm community and had gotten lost that morning as well.

“I always get lost, too, when I come here,” she said. “But I always figure it’s because it’s such a big town.”

This article may be reprinted when this full byline is used:

Susan O’Halloran is a story artist, workshop presenter, television personality and keynote speaker whose work explores the complex issues of social justice. She is an author of four books plus diversity curriculums, CDs and films. The Chicago Reader says O’Halloran “has mastered the Irish art of telling stories that are funny and heart-wrenching at the same time.” For a copy of a free teleseminar with Susan, go to www.susanohalloran.com

* Photo purchased from istockphoto.com